If
you're planning to take a look at Galicia and need a base from
which to explore, or if you're just looking for a holiday place,
click here
for details of a lovely cottage in the hills, just 15 minutes from
Pontevedra and the coast.

If
you're thinking of buying a place in the beautiful Cotobade
area just north east of Pontevedra city, contact me on
colindavies@terra.es
for details of one superbly located property

1.7.11

Note:
I'm struggling with a new laptop (Mac not PC) and new FTP software.
For a while, this page will not look like is should. But the content
will be the same. Please bear with me. Thanks.

Hola,

Welcome
to the home page of my web site

My
primary purpose is to tell you something about Galicia in general and
Pontevedra in particular. Galicia, Spain that is. Not Galicia,
Poland. Several people have been kind enough to tell me how much
they've appreciated my site and I hope you do too. Someone who
links into it has said it's not pretty but 'does the job'. I'm happy
with that.

The
secondary purpose of my site is to share my view of life in Spain, or
at least here in the Galicia/Pontevedra corner of it. The Life
in Spainpage links to things I've written on
specific occasions but for a running commentary you'll need to go to
my daily blog - Thoughts
from Galicia

Finally,
this site provides a vehicle for some scribblings
that have nothing to do with either Galicia, Pontevedra or Spain but
which are intended to amuse.

If
you're thinking of buying property in Galicia, here's my personal
view of the weather
in its very different provinces. I also recommend the Weather link on
my blog.
Of course, if you read this regularly, you should suffer fewer shocks
when you take up residence here. I also recommend Life
in Spain. Plus this.

GALICIA

Here's
a general introduction to Galicia,
a surprisingly green and beautiful part of Spain. Or Galithia,
as it is sometimes written. This concentrates on the area in the
Pontevedra province known as Las Rias Bajas (in Castilian Spanish) or
As Rias Baixas (in Galician). The rather inadequate literal English
translation of this is 'Low Estuaries'. But ‘The Lower Fjords’
would probably give you a better feel for their nature and scenic
beauty. This said, I recently read a guide book which insisted they
were nothing like Norwegian fjords but more like Scottish firths.
Which is probably fair comment.

Further
up the north west coast of Galicia are Las/As Rias Altas (or ‘The
High Estuaries’). These are possibly even more beautiful but
certainly more dangerous. It’s here that you'll find the Costa de
La Muerte, or the Coast of Death. This is something best done from
the landward side. If you're attracted to such places, I think
there's one in Brittany as well. And probably Cornwall.
Interestingly, all three of these places claim Celtic roots.
Obviously a morbid people.

I
mention on the Spain page The Bible In Spain by George Borrow,
written in 1834. Here's a link to the fascinating stuff he he wrote
just about Galicia.
If you can't face all of this, here's a sampler - his dyspeptic view
of Santiago
and its cathedral. He was obviously wrong to think its glory was
passing away.

Anyone
interested in early British connections with Galicia should click
here.

And
anyone wanting to know how Galicia fared in The Peninsular War of
1808 onwards, should click here.

For
an even more idiosyncratic view of Galicia than mine, click here
for a book (currently parts of it) written in the early years of the
20th century by an Englishwoman, Annette Meakin

And
here's
an introduction to a couple of Galician novelists of the 19th
century, written by Aubrey Bell in 1912.

See
here
for a silly comparison between Galicia and Greater Manchester.

And
see here
for my write-up of a 'pilgrimage' I did with old friends in May-June
2010 from Tui to Santiago de Compostela. Which is the Galician half
of the Portuguese Way. Or "El camino portugués".

As
I no longer update this page on Galicia, if you need further [or
up-to-date] information, please try the Galicia Facts
link in my daily blog - Thoughts
from Galicia. Or just use the search box there, as I
haven't used the Galicia Facts label much for a while
now.

PONTEVEDRA

This
is my personal guide
to the city and something of the province of Pontevedra. And here
are, firstly, a short dissertation
on the houses that are disappearing from the city; and, secondly,
pictures of the sort of monstrosities
that are being built nowadays.

And
these are brief - and hopefully amusing - accounts of various things
that have happened to me in Galicia/Pontevedra since I set up
residence 6 years or so ago. They may or may not improve your
knowledge and understanding of either Galicia in general or
Pontevedra in particular.